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tv   MONEY With Melissa Francis  FOX Business  December 10, 2012 5:00pm-6:00pm EST

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liz: off the desk, police in australia are telling motorists not to use the apple app. they were stranded in a national park 40 miles away from the destination. they have no water and temperatures hit 115 degrees. david: melissa francis is next. melissa: i'm melissa francis and here is what is "money" tonight. the tax cliff is coming. grover norquist says upper earners are getting hit with higher taxes for parts of the health carr law. why isn't that enough? he is here to keep fighting the fight. plus venezuela just surpassed saudi arabia with
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the world's largest oil reserves. now hugo chavez has announced his cancer is back. a chart, changing of the guard there could have a huge impact on the globlt oil market. we'll have details. so much pot, so few answers. legalized marijuana laws take effect in washington state and colorado. from driving high to trafficking weed over sttte borders the legal and financial nightmares are just beginning. but we're convening a pot power panel to help clear the smoke. even when they say it's not it is always about money. melissa: first let's look at the day's market headlines. some breaking news on aig just out a short time ago. the treasury announced it is selling all of its remaining 234 common shares in the insurance giant however treasury will continue to hold warrants to purchase aig common stock.
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investors refusing to give up hope on the fiscal cliff. the dow and s&p 500 gained post-election day tumble. the dow climbed 13 points for its fourth straight game. more trouble for once untouchable apple. jeffries cut its price target by 100 bucks down to $480 a share. shares fell by more than half a percent on the news. now on to our top story. tonight is taxes and how hard we are all about to get hit. there are already a trillion in tax increases baked right into the obamacare law and that means upper being in earners will see billions of dollars in tax hikes as it is. for democrats it is not enough. with republican lawmakers backing off the pledge not to raise taxes looks like tax hikes for the wealthy are certainty. joining for more, grover norquist, president of americans for tax reform. thanks so much for joining
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us. >> absolutely you say a lot of people are missing the fact that obamacare baked in a ton of tax hikes for wealthier americans as it is? >> people talk about the fiscal cliff as if it is one thing. it is three. there's the obamacare taxes. to pay for obamacare were delayed until after he got himself safely elected. so in the next decade there are a trillion dollars of higher taxes. five of those big ones start january 1st. that is one part. part two, the bush tax cuts disappearing. that is $500 billion tax increase next year, 2013. and then the third part which is the spending restraint, sequester, which obama wants to put off. that would save 1.2 trillion over a decade. he wants to put it off and spend the 1.2 trillion. melissa: all true but, you know what? at this point it seems like it is not resonating with the averaae american. go out and look at polls.
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quinnipiac said 77% of all republicans think it is a bad idea for lawmakers to promise never to raise taxes. >> no, no, read that poll. melissa: reading it verbatim. >> the question was, should you not raise taxes on the high income earners, whatever. melissa: to never raise taxes on wealthy under any circumstance? >> okay. the pledge of course is not to raise taxes period. the pledge is also to the american people not to any one group of people. so the good news is, also, when you ask people, even the ones who say it would be okay to raise taxes on high income people, if we raise taxes for the fiscal cliff or for debt ceiling, do you believe the will also raise taxes on middle class. 60% percent of americans understand that once the politicians get the bloodlust out there, once they smell the blood in the water, once they raise taxes on the few, they go after the many. melissa: oh, i absolutely believe that's right but i think that the point is the
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republicans are losing momentum on the side of not raising taxes. that it is starting to feel more and more like there must be some concession, there must be some caving to get through the fiscal cliff. when you look at senators who have said they're going back on the pledge, lindsey graham, bob corker, tom coburn, lamar alexander, eric cantor, what do you do at this point to keep the fight going? or do you think that it is necessary to concede a little bit of ground? >> well, two things. the senators, the republican senators to a certain extent don't matter because the democratic senate can pass a tax increase if they want the senaaors you mentioned would only vote for a tax increase if they got massive permanent entitlement reforms of the kind that harry reid and the president have announced they're not doing. so even if coburn broke his commitment to the people of oklahoma, which he got a elected with a written commitment not to raise taxes at all, his new statement is, he might raise
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tax as little if he got permanent reform. melissa: do you ffle the tide is turning against you and necessary to give in a little bit to get a deal done or not? >> okay. there is no need to raise taxes to get a deal. obama two years ago extended all the bush tax cuts for two years. there is no reason not to do that again. his reason --. melissa: he will not agree to it though. seems like the only way to get a deal done here is to give an inch much of ground? >> there is no deal if he wants to raise taxes. -phe can veto any, the republicans have already passed through the house making those tax cuts permanent. if the gnat, which hasn't acted, hasn't voted, remember the reason why we have this odd position of some of the weird polling that you're talking about which is different than the traditional polling is that we've had a news blackout about what goes on inside these negotiations. we've been insisting that we should have those negotiations between boehner, reid, everybody forgets harry reid is in the room
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and obama with c-span cameras there so every american can see what actually happens. if they saw what they're talking about, we would have a much better deal at the end of the day. melissa: i don't know. i think we would all be in agony watching what was happening there. >> you wouldn't have to watch the whole thing but somebody could tell you what happened. melissa: grover, thanks so much. here is our "money" question of the day, should grover norquist give into tax hikes? many of you mentioned he is not elected official. we know what you mean. like us on facebook.co facebook.com/melissafrancisfox or foal neon twitter -- follow me on twitter at melissa a francis. detroit is the latest possibility of being latest and biggest city to file for chapter 9 bankruptcy. detroit mayor binge said the city will lay off 400 to 500 workers in the nexx few months. it will take a lot more than that to keep the city from going broke.
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we're joined by michigan senator rick jones. thanks for joining me, senator, do yoo think if they dot latest layoffs will it satisfy the milestones the city needs in order to get more state aid? >> it is gooddstart and but not enough. we have a city council totally dysfunctional. recently mayor bing asked them to come in, they said we're on holiday. it is unbelievable. melissa: you said they think they deserve a bailout. what makes you think that they feel? >> detroit city councill3 woman came on national tv and said, president obama, we all voted for you. it is time to bring the bacon. bail us out. that's outrage just. that folks think they can just spend money like no tomorrow and expect anybody else to bail them out. my constituents from mid michigan are saying no bailout. they need to fix the city theirselves. melissa: this is something going on all across the country. it is why we take so much
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interest in this. we've seen counties or cities at least going bankrupt elsewhere around the country. you see whole states. i worry what will eventually happen with california as a whole. but it seems like, you know, this is the status quo. people believe that the state or the feds will come in and bail them out. do you have the political will in your state to really say no? >> i blow we do. you know, michigan is on a, you know, ground here. we're doing very well. we have a balanced budget every year. we're required by our state constitution. we don't have a problem. it is time for all the cities to wake up and balance their budget. melissa: yeah. what do you think is really going to happen here? there are a couple of other plans that are possible. you talk about appointing a emergency manager to come through and make all the tough cuts. but as i understand it, there was a law firm that was supposed to come in and do that and city council voted them down. >> that's true. the governor made an offer, would you like an emergency
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manager to come in, a law firm and help you? and they said absolutely not. we'll just run it ourselves. give us more money. melissa: doing a great job, so why would they possibly bring anyone else in to help. another plan to dissolve the city and incorporate to wayne county. this is something we heard a lot about. doesn't this put their troubles back on everyone else's plate? >> the problem with detroit they have lost 25% of their population in a decade. a person left every 22 minutes. so it has had such a shrinkage in population. they have a lot of land simply not being used. sitting there vacant. it may be time to ccnsider dissolving the city and re-energizing it with a smaller city. it could be. pelissa: you even take it one step further. size of the city byuce the bulldozing abandon the properties. could you really, i mean that is an interesting idea. could you really do that? what would it take? is it legal? and how would it help? >> well, we have a lot of
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prooerty the city has taken in. they're paying no taxes. it is just basically vacant property. and i know there are businessmen that have offered to come in and help, perhaps put agriculture in the area. something to pay a few taxes. so far the city council says no. melissa: so why would bulldozing it and making the city smaller, are you talking about bulldozing land no one owns it? i guess i don't understand the details of that? >> a lot of property has gone back to the city for lack of paying taxes. we simply have vacant buildings. even a few burned out homes. and so it is time to make the city safer by getting rid of those vacant homes. melissa: if you had to bet, what would you bet is really going to happen here? >> well, right now i think it will drag out for a while. we're all hoping the city council comes to their senses. nobody wants to see a bankruptcy. if that happens, vultures come in and they will pick up all the jewels of city. cobo hall. we have belle isle. i hope it doesn't ever
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happen but we have the detroit institute of arts down there. and who knows what would be purchased, what would be gone forever. melissa: i don't know. vultures by an investor might be a good solution. give us an update as more happens. a fascinating story. >> thanks. melissa: news that hugo chavez that his days could be numbered. why his death would send oil markets into a state of upheaval. getting your heart's desire. weed is officially legal in washington state in colorado. firing up the fatties is creating a cloud of financial and legal woes. who will come out ahead when all that smoke clears? stay tuned for our pot power panel. more "money" coming up. ♪ . can i help you?
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♪ . melissa: now turning to venezuela and possibly the end of an era. this weekend prrsident hugo chavez said his cancer has returned and for the first time he publicly talked about the end of his rule asking supporters to back his vice president. that is nicholas maduro.
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venezuela's oil minister announced at the last opec meeting the country has the largest oil reserves in the world. would the death of chavez have a major impact on the global oil market? with me, john kingston, platt's global director. welcome back to the show. this is huge. we've been following this for a long time but i mean it's very serious. emergency surgery. it is his third surgery. he never talked about what kind of cancer he has but at this point it has got to be very serious? >> i think we can assume the chavez area is almost over. as colleague of mine said i heard you refer earlier why that is setting up uncertainty in the market. you're always a little better with the crazy that you do know than the one you don't. melissa: i guess. >> what the future holds could be civil strife, not a civil war but i have felt for a long time that the biggest risk in oil markets would be a precipitous collapse of the venezuelan industry. you hate to think that the death of mr. chavez would set that off but ped vest is
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a, the state oil company has been essentially gutted by chavez. can it hold together without any sort of leadership at all? it is a scary situation. melissa: i went down to venezuela for an opec meeting and it was pretty much a meeting by gunpoint. even as media were led around with machine guns basically trained on us the whole time. the whole country was very much in lockdown. >> it has probably gotten worse now. melissa: what does that mean if the person behind all that is suddenly gone? pt seems like it would create quite a vacuum. he is speaking out for his vice president but no hose? >> compare something to libya. in libya about the only institution that made sense, that worked like a normal world institution would work was the state oil company which was known as noc, national oil company. in venezuela it is completely different. pedevasa is arm of hugo chavez. how does the venezuelan oil industry stay together and move forward when it has become so completely
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politicized. the libyans have come back nicely. their production was where it was before. they had the institution that sort of hung together. they're not going to have that in venezuela. melissa: at the same time no one can ignore this country. at the last opec meeting, the minister from venezuela, stood up and said, we now have the world's largest oil reserves backed by bp saying that they have more than saudi arabia. >> but a lot of those are oil sands, very heavy reserves. you know, an api gravity of six doesn't mean much to most people but almost like a tar. extremely high cost of production the fact if they had gone through with reforms put in place in the mid-'90s under the leadership of a man named giusti, they would be producing 3.5, 3.6 million barrels a day. instead they're producing by our estimates and estimates of most, 2.3 million barrels a day. they tell the world they're producing 2.7. nobody believes them. you can see just the impact
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of hugo chavez. he has just gutted this industry. melissa: yeah. >> you really have to think this would be a better day for venezuelan oil but could be pretty rocky getting there. melissa: just for comparison, saudi arabia is five to six times that out put on given day. >> for sure. melissa: they saying this they have more reserves. saudi arabia disputes that. >> talking about u.s. reserves of oil shale in the rockies and they're there and trillions of barrels. insanely expensive to produce. oil intense sieve. you can count them but stretch to count. melissa: if he dies what happens to oil the next day? how nervous are the markets? how big of a deal is this? >> that's a good question. i think the markets would be reasonably nervous and i tend not to think that way. melissa: yeah. you're a very calm guy about this stuff. >> here i am but -- but i do think that given that. pede investment as is hold by spit and bailing wire
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and. on other hand people who will be most cared are chinese get half a million barrels a day for loans of the cubans get it essentially for free. they have to be really worried. i always thought the venezuelan output was always hanging by a thread and even death in short term of mr. chavez wouldn't fix that. melissa: it will be fascinating to watch. wow! john kingston, thanks as always. terrific. time for today's fuel gauge report. oil prices fell for the fifth straight session. rising inventories and economic jitters pushed crude down 37 cents. settling $85.57 a barrel. that is one-month low. good news for drivers. u.s. gas prices fell to a 11-month loy. that is according to the latest lundberg survey. the $3.38 a gallon, down 10 cents in three weeks. not bad. saudi arabia said a cyberattack on state-owned giant aramco was launched by several foreign states. the saudi government didn't
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specifically names. citing a ongoing investigation. a virus hit 30,000 aramco computers in august, aiming to shut down production. this is the new frontier by the way. >> chris mass comes early for -- christmas comes early for pot lovers in colorado and washington. whoo-hoo. with the legal mess just beginning it is anything but a smokers paradise. we bring in a pot panel. why not? to break it down next. do you have ever have too much money?
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♪ . melissa: legalized marijuana, perfect song, right is new frontier. along with unexpected and potentially costly issues. everything how car insurance companies will handle people
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driving under the influence to crossing state lines with weed. so we have another "money" power panel today although we call it a pot power panel, because we like alliteration. attorneys joey jackson, rebecca nikem. and chancellor of oakster university, dale jones. somebody raised this issue other day, showing a great story. studies show you don't drives a well when you're stoned. >> really? come on. melissa: it is shocking. at the same time very difficult for local authority to enforce the law. >> you're right, melissa. it is a lot different, with alcohol you have this thing called a breathalyzer, right? you blow into the tube and comes out with some reading but what i think will happen is what they do with alcohol also. they say they stopped you. why? there is usually predicate for the stop, associated with bad driving. you're swerving on the road. going too quickly. that is the predicate. that's why they stop you. when they stop you say you
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had waterry bloodshot eyes, they smelled the odor of mayor one. melissa: odor is pretty telling? not that i wouldd3 know. >> pretty telling, yes. harder part, melissa, how they test the level. the police can't just go and take your blood which is the most effective test but in the event you hurt someone, cause serious physical injury at worse, death they can draw the blood after warrant. that will tell amount of nano grams in tte system, that could strike a death knell to any defense. melissa: rebecca, isn't that hard to prove or regulate or set a yardstick against? i'm told night same like alcohol level like .08. above that you're guilty. marijuana stays in the system longer, different impact on people. doesn't that make it tougher for law enforcement? >> absolutely. it does stay in the blood. they're concerned people will found guilty driving under the influence. we have something called the drug recognition experts.
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they're used on day-to-day basis when somebody is pulled over for what they believed was an alcohol infraction and turns out what joke which was talking about when they blow into the meter and it comes out 0.0. why are they driving the way that they drove and why did they fail the field sobriety tests? ah, they must be under the influence of drugs which could include prescriptions. and what's been happening with these drug recognition experts that we have been challenging their expert tees. and it turns out that we have somebody from dr. jeffrey janeska from johns hops kins. everybody heard about johns hopkins. he base say said you can flip a coin. these drug recognition experts are police officers and do not have the ability to take care of this. melissa: i hear you. dale, you say that, using marijuana can improve your focus. is that true?
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>> well --. melissa: that was for dale. go ahead. >> okay. >> it can improve and does improve focus but that is not always a good thing if you're behind the wheel of a car if ou're not focused actually driving. there are several studies and some show that small amounts of cannabis on can improve importance. some studies show it is detrimental. we don't have enough research on the subject to say for sure. there is not a scientific tie between the nano gram limit to blood levels to performance the way we currently have with alcohol. melissa: joey, this is exactly what worries me. we changed the law and haven't thought about all the possible negative externalities come along with it. we haven't figured out how to deal with this problem, driving. how about insurance companies? how about insurance companies saying they don't want to give someone insurance because they're a medical marijuana user, immediately they will be hit there are some different
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things. >> by one of us vicious lawyers, right? melissa: i love lawyers, especially when i need one. >> exactly. you're absolutely right there could be a parade of horribles and could be unintended consequences that come about assa result of this. the problem we're presupposing as a result of this legalization people will be totally irresponsible. however, even if we don't presuppose that, you can presume because it is legal and more accessible there is higher rate and risk for people to drive in an impaired condition. melissa: yeah. >> i do think ultimately, right the law is ahead of the regulations. they're going to be rules an regulations that catch up but they're just not caught up as of yet to your point. melissa: i don't know. dale, another concern is, what if you're in a state where using marijuana is legal and then you cross the border to another state. it is still in your system. what can the law do to you in that case? >> well you do have to be very aware of the zip code you're in as well as the badge that pulls ou over. unfortunately because of the patchwork of laws and regulations from state to
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state it would matter if you were pulled over in say oklahoma. you can go to prison for a very long time. it is important to know where you are, what you're doing and behave responsibly under that state law. importantly, if you're consuming any drug, be it cannabis, prescription drugs, alcohol, that you don't operate heavy machinery or drive immediately afterwards because this is about behavior on the road. but we have to make sure that we're focused on the science of this issue, not the scare tactics. i want to point out that the transportation bureau tracks, traffic fatalities with respect to marijuana and the numbers are so low in our emergency rooms as to be unreportable. the people that want to smoke pot and get behind the wheel already are. and what we need is research and education campaign to insure that the people that are under the influence of any drug do not get behind the wheel. melissa: now that you're legalizing it in places the use will grow. so the incidence will grow and we have a lot more area to test what could possibly
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happen. that makes me nervous as a driver. rebecca, i will give you last word. >> 10,800 people killed drinking and driving. 40,000 people died because of alcohol. 400,000 died because of smoking. the numbers for marijuana are incredibly low. you can't overdose. you don't get cancer from it. and i --. melissa: i hear you, rebecca. we don't want to add to any of those numbers. one more [raul talking at once]. we've got to leave it there. thanks to our pot power panel. you were all fantastic. hope you come back. bizarre warnings from syria's regime. they claim it could be framed for using chemical weapons. there are unconfirmed reports their use may have already begun. we'll talk about that next. this made i grateful riding in a chrysler, right? remember the workers that were caught boozing and
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looked like they were high a couple years ago. and they were fired. now they're back on the job. how is that even possible? piles of money and tons of questions coming up. ♪
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ally bank. why they have a thomas sargentate cd.tonigh, nobel laureate in economics, and one of the most cited economists in the world..tonigh, professor sargent,can you te what cd rates will be in twyears? no. if he can't, no e can. that's why ally has a raise your rate cd. ally bank. your money needs an ally. melissa: the latest from
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syria this shocking video which we have not been able to authenticate, shows a shell in duma nd traces of chemical weapons. syrian conflict growing more frightening by the day. we have the founder of islamic forum for democracy says the key to solving this crisis on the screen is understanding that money that is driving it. i know you're literally on layover. you're on your way to the middle east tonight. thanks so much for taking a few minutes out from the airport to come over to be on the show. tell me about the financial relationship in here that is driving the whole thing that we may or may not understand. can you hear me? oh, boy. all right. what do you guys want to do? all right. we're going to take a quick break to try to straighten out our audio yo issues. he was such a good sport to come on the show, we'll be right back and we can ve you 10% on ground shipping over the ups store.
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melissa: all right. we're back for the latest from syria. we have the founder of the american islamic forum. thanks so much for being here. can you hear me? did we sort it all out? >> yes, melissa, i'm with you. thanks for having me. melissa: let's get to it. you say there is economic force driving this whole situation in syria. -pif we understood it better
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we could come closer to solving the problem it has to do with turkey and russia. explain it to me. >> the bottom line there is old historical triangle between turkey, syria and russia. until we break the triangle we'll not solve the problem. the reason the assad regime has been able to perpetrate genocide against its own people, 50,000 killed, 1 one had you,000 displaced and three million homes destroyed. russia continues to give them arms, $1.5 billion. just last week publicly reported sending cash and currency to the assad regime so they continue to pay their military henchmen to keep doing the genocide. turkey that has been doing good humanitarian work on the border with refugee camps for 150,000. it playing a game of russian rule let, it is all about money. the money is greater than ever coming from russia. they're buying natural gas to the tune of almost $35 billion with russia.
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putin was just in turkey last week on december 3rd and signed 11 different trade agreements. they hope to increase it to 100 billion over the next few years. there is no sign turkey really means what it says on the surface of its skin. meanwhile the blood flows with economic thriving between syria, russia and turkey. melissa: explain to me, how does that tie turkey in? you say they're getting cheap natural gas from russia but how does that make them behave towards syria? what is the connection there? >> the connection they say they're working humanitarian but the rest of us, those of us in the free world have been trying to put pressure on countries like iran and russia that have been trying to bypass the sanctions against syria. meanwhile remember, turkey has a 40-year-old relationship with syria and right now they have even been talking about maybe keeping some of the infrastructure there. so turkey has not, in the press conference, melissa, with putin, not one bad word was said about assad.
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if turkey really meant about, really meant what it says about getting assad out of there and changing regimes they would have told putin to stop funding that reg people and to actually move forward in stopping the blood line which is continuing to fuel the assad regime. melissa: you've seen a lot of this up close. you have family in syria. do you think there is anything at this point that could be done to stop what is going on or is it too late? >> our family are homeless. they have no electricity. no water. they're dying. i can tell you one thing, melissa. if we stopped the fuel from russia, and iran, that conflict would end in just a matter of weeks. as long as russia and iran and then as we saw on the program a few weeks ago, turkey was bypassing iranian sanctions with gold, et cetera. these are bad actors in the region that allowed assad to continue. if the president can get on his bully pulpit to tell these countries to stop fueling the worst genocide in many decades assad will go away.
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meantime our families will die. melissa: do yo think that is possible with respect to turkey or russia? iran operates like a rogue nation. there is nothing we can do to influence. we have our own problems with them. do you think it is possible with either turkey or russia we'll have impact and stop this triangle of money? >> well if we weren't looked upon as paper tiger absolutely. if somebody like president reagan was in the -pwhite house to call a spade a spade. the obama administration is doing nothing and allow turkey and russia to dance all over the sanctions and lip service against assad. yes, why can't we call the russians out? they were sending 200 tons of currency to pay their generals. why can't we push that openly? russia is teetering pulling away from assad. we need to start to influence rebels about, free syria army. even if assad leaves, russia and turkey are positioning themselves to have significant influence on a regime that will be after assad and it won't be an ally of the united states. melissa: thanks so much for coming on.
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please have a safe trip. we look forward to having back soon. >> absolutely. thanks, melissa. melissa: this is pretty crazy. look at this video. these are the chrysler employees that were caught red-handed drinking and smoking something on the job in 2010. 13 of them were fired. two were suspended without pay. well, now, they are all back at work. building your cars. thanks to a union-backed arbitrator. as you know, chrysler borrowed more than $11 billion as part of the auto industry bailout. that is what your tax dollars are spent on. how is it possible these guys are back on the job? joining me author of the state of the union, phil dine. thanks for coming back on. let's get right to it. how is it possible? >> good to be with you, melissa. who knows. this is, first of all this is not a union-backed arbitrator. what this is, is a union and a company-backed arbitration process.
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the contract calls for a certain process just like our legal system calls for jury trials. we may or may not like the outcome in any one trial or any one grievance process but neither you nor i heard the evidence. melissa: well, i mean, i saw the reporter and read the report who has been covering this story and he says that% they went into arbitration and had a lot to do, if you really drill down on statements -- >> i just lost you, melissa. melissa: oh my goodness. the gremlins are in the system to nile. phil, can you hear me. >> now i can. melissa: so, phil, he was saying if you drill down and you try and read through the statements that were put out by chrysler especially it sounds ike there were union rules they violated when they fired these employees. and i just wonder does it make sense to have people drinking on their lunch hour, operating heavy machinery? sure is a danger to them. i don't want them building my car. >> well look, i understand. you may or may not like the outcome in any one trial.
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and any one situation. we don't want people who were found innocent or not guilty in the legal system but on a technicality walking the streets but what is the alternative? i mean either we have orderly process or we don't. melissa: but, phil, do you feel like this gives overall union as black eye? because when people look at this video, they feel like, by virtue of being part of a union, they were allowed to go back to work, whether that is fair or not. i understand you're saying that's not fair. maybe chrysler did violate these rules but they're saying, to the outside, this gives unions a black eye. what do you think? >> well, let me give you, try to give you a fair and balanced fox perspective on that. i think --. melissa: just answer the question any way you like. it is all good. >> i think it is a fair question. on the one hand i think unions often do tend to go% too far to defend those who shouldn't necessarily be
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defended. for example the baseball players union. i think it was absurd of them to go to those lengths to protect, to prevent drug testing to fight management. seems like their biggest goal was to fight management, not to keep the sport clean. who suffered? all the honest members of the union. ie, the other baseball players and the fans and the game. melissa: right. >> i agree with you, unions can sometimes go too far. did they in this case? i don't know that is the case because i didn't hear the evidence but the other part of this answer is a lot of big companies, car companies, anheuser-busch which is wall-to-wall teamsters and biggest brewer in the world and, lockheed marttn which is machinists they like having these kinds of arbitration and grievance procedures because what is the alternative? melissa: i think it's a bad ad for chrysler because people see this and they don't want to buy chryslers because saying these are guys putting my car together. i'm scared the tire will fall off going down the
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street. i wish we had more time. you're a great guest. appreciate having you on. >> my pleasure. melissa: from a mc slump to mcsave. anatomy of a sales comeback. cheddar, bacon, onions coming to the rescue. i will eat both cheeseburgers doing the break. you can never have too much money or too much lipitor, i don't know. hmmm.
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>> all right, time at a a little bit of fun. we're joined with our very own ashley webster. first up in a study came out with a positive effects of according to the stuuy, coupon is more relaxing than the spa, more enjoyable than kissing. i don't know who they are kissing. what do you think? >> this study was put together for coupons.com. no big surprise. coupons here everything that could ail you. melissa: those who receive ccupons for 11% happier. what is 11% happier feel like? >> i would say maybe a seven
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versus what they were feeling before, but what they didn't tell you was retail theft is up 4%. obviously this will make them feel even more happy. melissa: there are real levels to it. this was a higher response than associate with kissing, cuddling or other social interactions. >> it made it sound like no matter what was wrong, the psychiatrist should be handing out coupons, everybody should go to the hospital, have a coupon, you will feel much better. >> if you look at jcpenney numbers and you saw how much they took in same-store sales because they eliminated coupons, and my show people really love coupons. melissa: there has been enough talk about the fiscal cliff and now entrepreneurs are trying to profit on it. look at how lovely that is.
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a cookbook for the fiscal cliff. there are pajamas. and hoodies. does your dog need a hoodie? some of the products aren't selling at all. do you want a fiscal cliff ready? did you order one of those? >> i didn't. there's nothing wrong with this, good entrepreneurship spirit of the country was based on. it is not exactly the greatest subject either. melissa: i want to do t-shirts that say i went over the fiscal cliff and all i got was this. melissa: maybe that is not clever enough, that is possible. >> or want to start a show with the main character being a ferret called fiscal cliff and all about money management. melissa: i am not sure that is going to work.
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next, mcdonald's sales up in november. specifically attributing it to this read the magic of bacon, cheddar and onions. mcdonald's says these bolstered their sales. i'm going to eat one as soon as the show is over. it smells good. it does not look so great onset read trust me, that was here in front of you. i think bacon makes everything better. >> this is what mcdonald's has to do, come up with a hamburger where there is a quarter pounder in the middle aad two big macs that are the bread. the beast. >> anytime you have cheddar and bacon in the formula, it is gold. melissa: two university of colorado students are facing federal charges after giving pot brownies to classmates and a
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teacher without telling them what they were eating. watch this reaction from a fellow student. >> they should have told people before they ate them because that could affect their whole day. melissa: i think she just had the brownie. three of them in all seriousness had to be hospitalized including the professor. how stupid are you to give a pot brownie to your teacher. >> i want to know what they're doing before they got hospitalized. eating onions all around? >> look, marijuana this past year in colorado they thought this was a great idea, not so funny. melissa: here's another one. running in the city might make you dumber than running in the suburbs because of

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